


I'm All Tangled Up

by ADreamIsASoftPlaceToLand



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Arum is a lizard, Arum likes it, Multi, Rilla has princess Jasmine hair, and lizards don't have hair, her hair and the fic, it's real soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 13:26:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19426882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADreamIsASoftPlaceToLand/pseuds/ADreamIsASoftPlaceToLand
Summary: Cafune: the act of running your fingers through the hair of someone you love





	I'm All Tangled Up

**Author's Note:**

> requested by Tumblr User @jakkubrat  
> title from "Falling" by Emmy Rossum

Arum stands in his workshop in the Keep, watching as Rilla moves around gathering supplies for her newest experiment. She’s calling it a “supplement”. Something to make sure the Keep stays healthy indefinitely instead of sending them into a panic every time it gets sick. Arum mostly trying not to get in the way, waiting for her to tell him she needs him. But he’s… distracted. He’s never really paid attention to Amaryllis’s hair before, since it’s usually piled into a knot on the top of her head when she’s working. 

Today, though, she’s simply tied it back from her face with a ribbon, so as she walks around the workshop it falls down her back like a waterfall, swishing and swirling around her hips, and Arum can’t stop staring at it. Human hair is a fairly new concept to him. Monsters like him have scales or feathers, sometimes even fur. But hair is different. There was a time when he thought Amaryllis could remove her hair as easily as the ribbons that bound it. 

It looks… soft. And he wants to touch it. To run his claws through it. Amaryllis pauses at her work station and before he knows what he’s doing he’s standing behind her and running a claw through the ends of it, gently enough that he thinks she won’t feel it. His claws slip through her hair unnoticed, and it’s just as soft as he expected. Softer, even. He lets his hand fall further through her hair, dragging it down and reveling in the sensation of her soft curls sliding over his fingers like cool silk, until he hits a snag. He tugs, trying to extricate his claws from her thick curls, but all he does is yank Amaryllis’s head back. 

“Agh! Arum, what? Ow, what are you doing??” She turns around to face him, and her hair pulls his hand with it, only entangling it more. 

He splutters for a moment, his frill ruffles up in embarrassment and he thinks he’s never been so mortified. He waves his hand in front of him, gesturing at his claws still entangled in the tips of her hair. “Your… I…” 

“Your claws. Are tangled in my hair, Arum.”

A pained noise rattles out of his throat. “Yes, Amaryllis.”

She gives him an exasperated look and then begins to work at the knots trapping his claws, pulling at the tangles. With a huff, looking up at him as she works free the last of the knots, she asks, “And how, exactly, did your claws end up in my hair in the first place?”

“Um. Your... Hair. It. Looked… Soft. And I... wanted… I wanted to touch it. It’s not my fault your hair is as sticky as a spider’s web,” he grumbles, absolutely not meeting her questioning gaze. 

Rilla pushes her hair back over her shoulder, and her gaze softens. “Arum… If you wanted to play with my hair you could’ve just asked, you know. But maybe just… Not while I’m working? And maybe also after I’ve brushed it a little better, so it isn’t so tangled, ok?”

He looks up as she huffs out a laugh, and a warm smile lights up her face. 

“You… don’t mind?” He clasps his hands in front of him, his fingers already itching to tangle themselves in her hair again, even if it means risking getting them tangled again.

“Not at all. Honestly, I love it when people play with my hair. It feels so nice, and it’s really relaxing,” she grins at him. “Just warn me first next time, ok?”

Later in the afternoon, when they’re taking a break after a successful administration of the supplement to the portion of the Keep that’s accessible from the workshop, they sit down in the grass together. After a few minutes sitting in comfortable silence, Rilla gives him a pointed look and then flops down so that her head is in his lap, her hair fanning over his legs like a velvet river. 

He tentatively reaches a hand out and rests it on the dark locks that are draped over him, and experimentally sinks his claws into them. He lifts up a section and runs it through his fingers, and he feels Amaryllis relax into his touch. It isn’t long before he’s got all four hands buried in her hair, carding through the roots near her scalp, stroking the shorter curls that sit at the nape of her neck, two hands attempting to recreate the braids he’s seen her weave into her hair. He’s fairly sure Amaryllis is asleep and is no longer benefiting from the relaxation his hands provide, but he has no intention of stopping any time soon. Their experiments can wait, and this is an experiment of his own. 

Bonus: 

Damien’s hair is much shorter than Amaryllis’s, but there are a few dark locks that curl over the nape of his neck when he lets it grow out a bit. They’re laying in bed together one morning, Damien slowly waking himself up enough to start his morning exercises, when Arum reaches out and begins to twirl one of the locks in his fingers. Arum and Rilla both snicker as a noise that is practically a purr emanates from Damien’s sleepy form, much to his eternal embarrassment. From then on, whenever Damien gets anxious, or begins to panic, or even if Arum is just feeling particularly content, he will drag his claws over Damien’s scalp and twirl his fingers through his curls, just to get that happy noise out of him again.

**Author's Note:**

> come chat with me on Tumblr! @shorter-than-her-tbr-pile


End file.
